


Bury Me Facedown

by RoseWinterborn



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Molly lives, immediately post-obann, sorry yall this is just angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27160519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseWinterborn/pseuds/RoseWinterborn
Summary: The Mighty Nein are running, and Molly is screaming.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	Bury Me Facedown

**Author's Note:**

> So guess who just finished episode 69??????????
> 
> I needed Molly's input on this development, so I wrote it myself.

The Mighty Nein are running, and Molly is screaming. 

The Nein flinch at the rasp of Infernal, but it is nothing compared to the wailing that emerges from his throat in Common--the sound of Yasha’s name, over and over with increasing desperation. They nearly lose him on the bridge, and not to the whispers’ thrall. Jester is forced to drag him up the spiral stairs, the only one of them strong and well enough to do so, through her own tears as they leave Yasha far, far behind, buried in the tomb with the Laughing Hand. 

They escape into the dusty daylight; Jester pitches Molly across the earth, whirling to force the doors shut behind them. He rights himself just a fraction too late, throwing himself at the doors with one last anguished keen before he sinks to the ground, forehead pressed to the stone as he sobs. 

“What did we do?” Fjord asks, numbly. “ _ Why did we do that? _ ”

“Yasha made her choice,” Beau’s voice is hollow. “She said so herself.”

“We need to find somewhere to hide,” Caduceus says, uncharacteristically forceful. “We’re not safe here.”

“We’re gonna leave, but can we at least set something so we know if it makes its way out of the door? Not that we could warn anybody, but--” Fjord stops, grasping for words he doesn’t have.

Caduceus meets his gaze, eyes large and hopeless. “I think it’s going to make its way out. We need to get on our mounts and head back.”

As if he hadn’t heard, Fjord bristles. “We literally did this guy’s job  _ for him.”  _

“And he’s-- _ paste,”  _ Caleb says. “We-we came away from this with nothing. Less than nothing.” He adds, his eyes dimming as Jester’s voice, uneven, whimpers Yasha’s name. 

“We’ve gotta move,” Caduceus repeats. 

There is a pause as they realize the consequences of their actions, the grim silence broken only by the wind and Molly’s grief. 

“We have to tell the Bright Queen,” Nott says. 

Caduceus almost seems to laugh, mirthlessly. “We have to tell a lot--we have to tell  _ everybody,  _ and we can’t tell anybody-- _.”  _

“ _ Fuck  _ the Bright Queen,” Molly snaps. “Fuck  _ everyone,  _ Yasha is still in that  _ fucking tomb--”  _

“--With that  _ thing!”  _ Fjord reminds him coldly.

Caleb blinks hard, then reaches into his pocket and pulls out the spool of silver wire. His expression goes bleaker still as he approaches the door and the tiefling weeping into it. Tentatively, he lays a hand on Molly’s heaving shoulder. “Mollymauk...Mollymauk you must move, I need to place this--”

“We can’t leave her there,” Molly chokes. He digs his nails into the stone. “We can’t leave her down there--”

Fjord’s voice is dark as the cavern they surfaced from. “I looked into Yasha’s eyes. She  _ smiled  _ when I said we had to get out of there. She said she didn’t know who she was, couldn’t remember things--we don’t know her at  _ all _ . What if that’s who she was the whole time?”

“We know her,” Jester contends, voice small. Molly pushes himself to his feet.

“Do we?” Fjord demands. 

“Yes!” Jester cries, as Molly give’s Fjord’s back a savage shove. 

“Of course we fucking know her,” Molly seethes. “ _ I  _ know her, she’s my  _ family _ \--”

Fjord grabs Molly by the wrist before he can shove him again. “He called her a name, he recognized her, and then she turned, in the middle of all that! That was a  _ different. Person _ .”

“She was mind controlled, like Caleb was!” Jester insists. “Those things happen.” Molly hisses something in Infernal that makes Fjord’s hackles rise. 

“I have a feeling that’s not the last time we’re gonna see her,” Beau says quietly, before the fight can escalate further.

Caduceus’s eyes find Molly. “We’re gonna save her,” he says, almost gently. “Just not today.”

“We have to save her,” Jester repeats. She winds her arms around one of Molly’s, burying her face in his technicolor shoulder. There is another pause, splintered by the gasp of Molly’s uneven breaths, by the tiny hitches of Jester’s. Caleb steps up behind them, putting his shaking hands on them in the best approximation of comfort he can muster. Even Fjord, furious as he is, caves, and releases Molly’s wrist to squeeze his hand.

“We have to get out of here,” Jester sniffs. 

“Let’s go,” Nott says. “Let’s just go back to the city--”

“We’ll have this conversation later,” Caduceus says firmly. The weariness of his voice sinks around them like a shroud.

“We will not give up on her, Mollymauk,” Caleb says softly. His fingers move against Molly’s coat with the barest amount of pressure. Gentle. Apologetic. “But there is nothing we can do for her right now.”

Molly sags, eyes shut tight. His expression does not change, not his stuttering breaths, but he gives the smallest of nods, and allows himself to be led away to the moorbounders like a puppet with cut strings. 

It is a long and silent ride back to Bazzoxan. 


End file.
